Rejected petition Stop withdrawing out of property transactions without valid reason.

We ask to introduce accountability measures:
If a property transaction drags on for 3 months without exchange of contracts, and one party withdraws without a valid reason, there should be financial or legal consequences.
Valid reasons would be loss of employment or inability to secure a mortgage.

More details

It’s currently legal to withdraw from a property transaction before exchange of contracts, without facing any financial or legal consequences, unlike in Europe, Scotland, Australia, NZ, Canada and the US. This causes huge financial and emotional stress, including lost deposits, legal fees, and wasted time. This change would make property transactions fairer and more reliable, reducing wasted time, costs, and emotional distress for those genuinely committed to completing their purchase or sale.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/721744

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 2 September 2025
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